Over text messages: Bail petition dismissed in blasphemy case

Accused says complainant holds a grudge against him and has framed him.

LAHORE:

An additional district and sessions judge on Tuesday dismissed the petition for an after-arrest bail by a man accused of blasphemy. Asif Parvaiz said that he was innocent. He said he and the complainant worked in the same factory. He said the latter held a grudge against him and had framed him.

The complainant said that he had received blasphemous text messages from Parvaiz.  Parvaiz said that someone had stolen the SIM card from his phone and used it to send the messages a month before the FIR was registered. He said the complainant was trying to blackmail him. Ghulam Mustafa Chaudhary, counsel for the complainant, said that the complainant had a record of the petitioner’s blasphemous text messages. He said the petitioner was lying. Saeed Ahmed Khokhar had filed a blasphemy complaint against Parvaiz with the Green Town police on September 25, 2013.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 16^th, 2014.